Newsademic British English edition 260

parties’ nominees and the presiden­
tial election is often called the ‘race 
for the White H ouse’. This building 
is in Washington DC, the country’s 
capital city. It’s where the American 
president lives and works. D
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The secretarybird is unusual. It 
hunts and feeds on smaller animals. 
Yet, it is the only bird of prey, or 
raptor, that walks more than it flies. 
When looking for something to 
eat, the secretarybird walks on the 
ground. M ost birds of prey search 
for small animals while up in the air. 
Researchers in the UK have man­
aged to work out how these birds 
stun and kill their prey. Their results 
are surprising.
The birds have eagle-like bodies and 
very long legs. They are 1.2 metres 
(four feet) tall. Like most raptors, 
secretarybirds have a hooked beak. 
The feathers on their legs and wing- 
tips are black. The others are mostly 
white or grey. The birds have a few 
long black feathers on the back of 
their heads. These may explain the 
name. Hundreds of years ago, peo­
ple who wrote official documents 
were called secretaries. They often 
kept quill pens (which were made

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4th February 2016 
Newsademic.com
™
 - British English edition 
page 
13
from feathers) behind their ears. The 
birds look like secretaries. Another 
possibility comes from Arabic. The 
Arabic name for the bird sounds like 
the French word for secretary.
Secretarybirds live in Africa. 
They are found in many Sub-Sa­
haran countries. These are places 
that are to the south o f the Sahara 
Desert. Secretarybirds like open 
grasslands, or savannas. During the 
day, the birds spend most o f the 
time on the ground. At night they 
prefer to sleep or roost in Acacia 
trees. The birds feed on snakes (in­
cluding poisonous ones), lizards, 
frogs, hares, rats, mice, and other 
small mammals.
W hen hunting, the birds tread on 
clumps o f vegetation. If an animal 
is disturbed and runs out, the bird 
quickly stamps on it. It will keep 
stamping until the animal is dead 
or stunned. Then, as long as it is
small enough, the animal is swal­
lowed whole. Secretarybirds have 
been seen near wild grass fires. 
There, they stamp on the small 
animals that are trying to get away 
from the flames.
Secretarybird
The researchers did some experi­
ments with a captive secretarybird in 
the UK. They placed a flat device on 
the ground. Called a force plate, it 
measures the speed and force o f any­
thing that touches it. The research­
ers attached a long cord to a rubber 
snake. They then pulled the snake
across the plate. The secretarybird 
rushed towards it and began to re­
peatedly stamp on the fake snake.
The force plate showed that each 
stamp hit the snake for just 0.015 
seconds (or 15 milliseconds). When 
a person blinks an eye it takes 150 
milliseconds. The power at which 
the foot hit the snake was measured. 
Secretarybirds strike their prey with 
a force five times their own body- 
weight. W hat’s more, this happens 
quicker than a blink o f an eye.
Secretarybirds are expert kick- 
hunters. W hen attacking poisonous 
snakes, the birds need to make sure 
that the snakes are quickly stunned 
or killed. Large flightless birds used 
to live in South America. Called 
terror birds, they died out around 
two million years ago. After study­
ing their leg bones, scientists think 
that like secretarybirds they were 
kick-hunters.